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Harrison's Hit on Decker

This is why I love Bleacher Report:

Thanks to a history littered with fines and a suspension for illegal hits, when Pittsburgh's James Harrison lit up Denver receiver Eric Decker in Sunday's Wild Card matchup, immediately some spectators cried foul. Decker immediately left the game and will reportedly miss Denver's next game with a sprained left MCL.

After reviewing the video, I simply can't agree that it was a dirty hit.

After Decker catches the ball you can see Harrison zero in on his waist. He then lowers himself and leans his shoulder in towards his upper thigh. In the process, Decker's knee collides with the Steelers' linebacker and there may have been some helmet-to-knee contact as well.

If you see the hit at full speed, it looks as if Harrison lowered his helmet directly into Decker's knee. Upon further review in slow motion, that simply isn't the case.

Harrison has been flagged and fined many times for his hits, but this one isn't something that should even be looked at. Decker was in the open field and Harrison deliberately went to tackle him below the waist, possibly to avoid going anywhere above that, and potentially risking a penalty.

At some point you have to stop waiting around for Harrison to do something dirty. Yes, his hits have been questionable in the past, but this one on Decker was clean. Receivers are exposed to getting lit up by linebackers when they go over the middle and had this been a hit from anyone but Harrison, no one would be questioning it.

Harrison made a good, clean football play, but unfortunately Decker's knee was injured in the process.

Obviously I agree with the article, but I was reading some other articles and some comments on them, and people are saying that Harrison should now be suspended for THIS hit. It's mind boggling to me. Harrison gets criticized and chastised for the way that he tackles, in response to that he changes the way he plays, and people STILL want him castigated. It's not about the way he tackles anymore. People want to hate on him now simply because he's the NFL poster boy for unsportsmanlike hits, so every tackle he makes for the rest of his career will be classified as a "dirty" hit and will be forever scrutinized by the NFL and everyone who's a fan of the NFL (besides Steeler fans, of course).

I feel bad for him, really. A player who, 10 years ago, would have been considered one of the best in the league, and his talent is being down played because Sir. Goodell is on his way to changing the NFL to the NFFL.

Why would people want him suspended? It was a clean hit. It just shows you how much people hate on the steelers and the players. First it was Ward with the hit on Rivers. The Harrisons hit. It will never end people talking about something a steelers player has done. It will never end, but there should be nothing at all coming out of the commisioners office for that tackle.

Any fan who wants to complain about Harrison's hit on decker is nothing more than a whiney excuse for a fan looking for reasons to justify why their team might not win now.

The hit was perfectly legal, not even remotely close to a flag much less a fine. This is what the NFL wanted and this is what they got. You don't want players to go after the heads of ball carries; fine they'll just take out the knees and end their season. When a player is in the air like that, any defensive player will cut their legs out from underneath them if they can't make the normal tackle, they are afraid of going too high, or just want to be sure the player is down.